As Ray Bradbury says in Zen in the Art of Writing, Characters would do my work for me,
if I let them alone, if I gave them their heads, which is to say, their fantasies, their frights.

AND

Find a character, like yourself, who will want something or not want something, with
all his heart. Give him running orders. Shoot him off. Then follow as fast as you can go.
The character, in his great love or hate, will rush you through to the end of the story.